E-Cycling

E-Cycling

E-Cycling (Recycling used electronics)

E-cycling refers to the process of recycling electronics. Today there are so many devices that we use for business and for fun. On average a household has more than 20 electronic devices in it. Among them are computers, video games, music players, and mobile phones. When they are used up and tossed into landfills they can release chemicals that get into the soil. From there they make it into the underground water and into bodies of water.

They also take up a considerable amount of space when you think about the vast amount of these electronics that people go through annually. There is a huge amount of aluminum and mental found in electronics too. When you recycle them it takes about 5% of the amount of energy required to make new items from raw materials.

Statistics show that there is enough energy saved annually through recycling a ton of aluminum to offer the average household enough electricity for the next 10 years! This includes your other electronics that you may not replace often. For example TVs can last for decades. VCRs can last that long too as many of them aren’t used often.

Some people have CD players that have been around since they came out. Other items such as microwaves though are used often and so they have to be replaced after several years. The amount of space in the landfills that all of these electronics take up is ridiculous in the landfills.

Efforts to recycle all of these types of devices continue to be moving forward. For example just 5 years ago there were about 14 million mobile phones recycled. This includes the chargers and the batteries. They can be taken to the provider you have for your mobile phone. When you get an upgrade they will often take the old one if you wish and recycle it for you.

The same may be true when you buy a new computer. Ask if they have any type of donation program for recycling that you can contribute to. Then they will take that computer off your hands and you don’t have to worry about it. Some stores are charging a low fee for disposal time and costs but it is really affordable.

Instead of keeping an old computer that doesn’t work at your home, donate it. Many colleges use them to teach their students. You can also donate the computer to be recycled. It is amazing that they take it apart, separate the pieces, and reuse every single item that they can. The rest is ground up and then made into other products.

Before you throw away any electronic product find out what you can do to donate it. Contact local entities and look around online. Some programs are offered annually through the EPA too. They offer collection sites for such products at no charge. It recent years they have been able to get about 15% of used computers recycled.

Still, when you consider about 40 million computers are tossed out annually 15% just isn’t enough. The other 85% are sitting in landfills taking up space and contributing to environmental problems. They can reduce in the environment suffering from mercury, lead, and more.

Due to so many efforts in place to recycle electronics there is simply no reason at all to continue tossing them out. Those that have done so mainly did it because they didn’t know such programs existed. Help to spread the word to make sure people know what options they have. This can influence what they will do when they have electronics that no longer work.

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